RIT TCOM333 Student Blog

Main menu

Category Archives: Grammar and Punctuation

In Technical Writing and Editing, we learned about the four levels of editing: revising, substantive editing, copyediting, and proofreading. Learning about the levels of editing allowed me to get a better grasp at how to approach my writing assignments in class. In the past I have eagerly completed my assignments then struggled to find a rhythm when editing them. More often than not, it lead to me proofreading the paper then submitting it. After being assigned multiple 10-page term papers and numerous other small assignments this semester, I knew I had to find a way to establish a better method of editing and submitting my assignments in a timely fashion. As a first step, I now know to revise individual documents as a whole to establish clarity. If time is permitted, I then update the organization and design of the document. Lastly, I go through the document twice to ensure clarity and consistency and then to catch any grammar errors.

I believe I have been very successful this semester when revising and editing papers. I not only believe that this strategy is useful while I am still a student, but in the future as an engineer as well. Engineers often write reports, memos, and e-mails to coworkers, clients, and customers. For quick e-mails, it is important to quickly copyedit and proofread to ensure the reader will understand the purpose of my e-mail, however in reports and memos it may be more crucial to go through each level of editing. Knowing how to utilize the four levels of editing is a valuable skill as an engineer.

-Briana Goold

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

Arlene Miller, blogger on bigwords101.com, discussed the history and current usage of how cuss words are altered in writing as well as on television and radio. Grawlix, which refers to strings of symbols that are often used in place of cuss words, date back to comic books from the 1880s. However, the term wasn’t coined until the 1960s. Sometimes this is referred to as profanitype, however that is just a slang term for grawlix.

In modern days, many different versions of grawlix are used. Oftentimes, a single asterisk is used to replace a central vowel in the cuss word. Common symbols that are used include &, #, %, !, @, and ?.

The Federal Communications Commission has restrictions on what can be said on television and radio. Broadcasters typically replace a cuss word with an audible beep which is now referred to as “bleeping” something out.

In the article, Arlene Miller mentions last how many authors, producers, and broadcasters will replace the swear with a more acceptable replacement term such as jerk, heck, or gosh, allowing them to get their point across in a more appropriate manner.

Like this:

This blog post by Save the Semicolon, entitled “Rules Are for Breaking” makes the very bold statement that there is no real rule or law that requires people to use proper grammar. It is instead only “very good advice.” The author says that one can break a grammatical rule and still be considered a good writer – if breaking the rule is what’s best for the reader. Although unconventional, this reinforces the idea of identifying the audience and taking it’s needs and characteristics into consideration when producing a document. The author provides a few examples, but for the most part leaves it up to you to figure out when to break the “rules,” and when to follow the “advice.” My title for this post may not be grammatically correct, but hey it certainly got your attention, didn’t it? Go on. Don’t play by the rules. You know you wants to.

Share this:

Like this:

The blog that I will be summarizing is one post from CyberText newsletter by Rhonda Bracey. She is a very active techcomm blogger and knows her stuff.

This particular blog was about her experience shopping at Target and seeing a sign showing where the CDs and DVDs where shown where they were with a large sign, but written as “CD’s” and “DVD’s”. This is grammatically incorrect because the two main rules for this dictate that when a word is plural, you add an -s or -ies. The second rule states that an apostrophe should only be used when in possessive. So in this instance, the sign was wrong. Plus on the side of it was the correct use of -s with a sign labeling “books”. The inconsistencies bothered Rhonda quite a bit to make a post about it. I just thought it was funny how she stated, and it being true, that target paid quite a bit of money for the sign where in actuality they paid for a sign that was grammatically wrong, plus then having it near a sign that was grammatically correct. I have to agree with her that inconsistencies are annoying.

Written By,

Chandler Daub

Share this:

Like this:

One of the five blogs that I am following is called, CyberText Newsletter by Rhonda Bracely. This is one of my favorite blogs so far because it highlights the errors that people often make with their grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. This blog also provides some useful tips that can be beneficial for the professional world. One recent post that was made on this blog called, ‘Conference presentation annoyances’, basically explained what not to do at a conference in regards to the person presenting to an audience. There were a lot of tips that I learned that I know will be beneficial for my career field. You should all check it out!